A Gladiator's War
by palfjw
Summary: After a series of horrific events Jacob Penn finds himself at Beacon Academy. Will teams RWBY and JNPR be able to bring him back from his PTSD And just how has this young man experienced so many horrors in such a short time? This story will not follow canon too much. Will start before volume 1. Will also contain graphic violence and maybe suggestive themes. First Story,feedback pls
1. Chapter 1

**A Gladiator's War**

Chapter 1: My Nightmare

 _I could hear the knocking at the door. I looked at the clock in my room and found it to be three thirty in the morning. Then I heard both of my parents leave their bedroom to answer it. They were talking in hushed voices. Suddenly my father was screaming, "No you can't take him!" Then I heard a loud smash and my mother screamed out in horror._

 _Whoever was at the door yelled, "Shut up bitch!" followed by another loud slap._

 _By this point I was looking out through a crack in my bedroom door. Two men entered our house, and stepped over my mother and father who were both holding their heads in pain. The first man in was wearing a black suit and tie and had and angry scowl on his face. The second wore a long trench coat and fedora and looked down sympathetically at my mother._

" _Where is he? We know he's here. This can all end peacefully if you just hand him over," the man in the black trench coat and fedora questioned._

 _My father, being stubborn as he was stood a said defiantly, "We both know that's a lie. There is no peaceful solution to this." The man removed his fedora revealing a set of small antlers and spoke almost sadly, "Marcus, I'm willing to let you and Caiti live and you know we won't harm your son. I'll leave that bit out of my report, but we are not leaving here without the boy."_

 _My mother spoke up this time, "We'll never give up our only son! How could you ask such a thing of us Felix?"_

" _You know I would never ask this of you. It's the agency, they want him. Marcus you know exactly why they want him," the man, apparently named Felix, answered._

" _I never should have submitted those blood samples to the lab. I'm sorry Caiti, this is all my fault," my father looked very angry but also possessed tears in his eyes as he spoke. "You can't blame yourself Marc, it's the law," my mother said attempting to console my clearly distraught father._

 _Felix placed a comforting hand on both of my parent's shoulders, it was clear they knew each other from somewhere. The other man was standing there looking very impatient and disgusted at the scene unfolding. "Felix, we have a job to do! Now either they give us the kid or will blow their heads off and we take him!" Felix and my father looked at him in a very hostile manner._

" _We will do no such thing Ulric! They are our friends, hell we graduated as the number 3 huntsman team in Beacon!" Felix took up a defensive stance between my parents and the man called Ulric. Ulric clearly didn't like this as he drew his weapon from inside his suit coat, a large handgun which he transformed into a wicked looking serrated dagger at least one foot in length. "I know but that was the past man! Sure we all joined the agency but they never did the dirty work we had to. They didn't go through the training and the torture we did. They don't know the things we've had to do. So what? Are you getting soft on me Felix? Are you just going to abandon all of your training for them? You didn't have a problem executing the other families. This is just a job and we have to do it. Now stand aside or I can't be held responsible for what may happen to you."_

 _Felix answered this by drawing his own weapon from under his trench coat, a large pump shotgun that he then transformed into a battle axe. "Ulric don't do this. We can get the kid and let them live. We just need to negotiate."_

" _The time for that has past. They will never give him up so they need to die." With that Ulric lunged towards my father faster than anything I've ever seen. I shut my eyes not wanting to see my father's throat cut by the man's dagger. However, I then heard the clang of metal and opened my eyes to see that Felix had caught the strike on the blade of his axe. Ulric glared into the eyes of his partner then quickly spun aiming low on the other man and struck true to the back of his knee. Felix seemed unharmed by the attack and quickly swung the handle end of the axe down into Ulric's face. He took the blow in stride and was suddenly launching attack after attack at the Faunus. Most were hitting their mark. It was clear that Ulric was a much better fighter than Felix. My father then began to drag my mother towards the living room for safety, I also knew that his great sword was mounted above the fireplace there and was likely going for that. I found I was correct when after a few seconds my dad came rushing into the room attempting to protect his old friend from another of his friends._

 _Noticing the new combatant, Ulric threw Felix against the far wall, transformed his weapon and sent a volley of shots toward my father. Luckily my father was light on his feet and dodged all but one round. However, the shot was powerful enough to pierce through the weak aura my father possessed and sent him sprawling to the ground clutching his left shoulder. Felix attempted to stand but fell not being able to put any weight on the leg Ulric had stabbed first. Examining his leg, it appeared black and swollen. Ulric had poisoned his blade. Hearing his partner grunt in pain, Ulric turned and strolled up to him kicking his battle axe away from his reach. "This could have been another routine job Felix. All we had to do was follow protocol. But no, you had to try and save them. I know that we were all friends once, but the agency is too powerful and too threatening to double cross. You do your job or get killed. I sure as hell aren't going to die for two people who abandoned me. Shame you had to." He then aimed his revolver at Felix's head and pulled the trigger. I couldn't close my eyes in time and watched as the man's head was pretty much reduced to mush and his body fell limply to the ground, blood spilling on the carpet._

 _Ulric turned around to find that my father was gone. He knew this trick well having fought with my father for many years. He listened intently and heard a slight shuffle to his left and struck out towards the noise with the handle of his revolver. It stopped suddenly and my father appeared out of thin air hold the man by the wrist. He then tried a stab towards Ulric's chest only for him to spin free and dodge, shifting his weapon back to dagger form. My father was quick to attack again, wanting to keep Ulric on the defensive. Though he wielded a great sword, he was surprisingly fast and kept vanishing and reappearing on all sides of Ulric. Few blows made it past Ulric's defenses but not enough to do any major damage. Suddenly, there were two Ulrics and both spun in opposite directions and struck out towards my father's stomach. He was able to block one but the other hit true to his mark. The dagger dug deep into my father's stomach and he fell to his knees._

 _Yanking the blade out dealt even more damage with the serrated edge. Reaching down and grabbing the top of my father's head he forced him to look up at him. "You put up a good fight Marcus, but we all know Caiti and I were always the best fighters on our team. I hate to do this but I must." With that Ulric placed the blade against my father's throat and cut it open with a swift motion. Too shocked by what was happening I couldn't look away. My father fell to the ground coughing and gurgling, blood spilling out of his open neck. He fell facing my room. He looked me in the eyes and all I could see was sadness and shock at that fact his son just witnessed him die. Then he stopped convulsing and laid still, dead. Eyes still locked on me._

 _That was when I heard a loud, blood curling scream come from the living room. My mother came rushing out with her giant mace. Her eyes were not there gentle grayish-blue but they were bright fiery orange. Her pupils had become long like the eyes of a lion. Her nails were replaced with claws. And her teeth were now sharpened like those of a lion. It made sense since we were both lion Faunus. However, the inner lion rage was coming out. She had always told me that she could make the primal part come out when she wanted. I think she called it a semblance? I am not entirely sure. She also said it came at a price but would never tell me more beyond that._

 _Ulric looked in terror as she came running out. He took a hasty stance and sloppily parried her first few attacks. She then reached out and dug into his shoulder with her claws and threw him across the room. Not wanting him to get back up she quickly jumped on him and continued her wild swings at his head. He was quick though and as she landed he slashed her thigh with his dagger clearly cutting deep. My mother didn't seem to notice and continued the assault. He managed to create another clone and threw her off of him. Her leg was beginning to turn black but she paid little attention to it. Primal lioness rage coursing through her. She swung at the clone and took its head clean off. It fell and turned to ash. Looking confused she let her guard down and Ulric slipped behind her and stabbed her through the back. The roared and reached behind her throwing him again back to the front hall. She began stalking up to her pray only to stumble and fall just outside my room. The poison obviously setting in. As she tried to stand she began to change back to normal. Ulric stood and strolled up to her stretching the sore muscles in his back from being thrown twice. My mother looked towards me and saw with a shock that I was witnessing all of this. "Ulric, please don't do this in front of him!"_

 _Realizing what she meant he opened up my door. He smiled down at me, the cowering five-year-old clutching his stuffed lion toy. "Looks to me like he's already had quite a show," he said with that wicked smile on his face. "might as well give him the big finale."_

 _He then reached down and pulled my mother up by her hair and held her in front of me. Tears were streaming down her face. She began yelling, "Jake, Jacob look away! Jacob, Jacob!" The blade was now at her throat. "Jacob look away!" I couldn't. my body was numb and I had no control. "Jacob!" The blade began to move across her neck and blood was coming out._ "Penn! Penn wake up!" I opened my eyes to find my team leader shaking me.

"You were really shaking around that time. You alright?" He had a genuine look of concern on his face as he looked down at me.

"Yes sergeant, I'm fine." I tried and succeed at hiding the shakiness in my voice.

"Alright well get you helmet on and get prepped. We drop in thirty." He then stood and placed his own helmet on walking to his drop pod and stowing his weapon. "You may be able to grab a quick snack if you hurry!" he Hollard over to me.

"Roger that!" I yelled as I began putting on my helmet. I then stowed my Dust energy blade and my rifle into my drop pod. I never eat before a drop. Fucks with the stomach. As I climbed in I saw the rest of my team making their way to their pods. The mission is supposed to be simple. The last one before our team would be disbanded. We just drop in, eliminate the insurgency rising up in town, get picked up, and we are done. Simple. Nothing we haven't done before.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so long and may seem a bit rushed. i lose focus a lot and dont always know what to write. so sorry again. i just want to get to the Beacon bit quickly so im not just writing an OC story.**

 **Quick rundown of the character descriptions:**

 **Sergeant Robert "Bobby" Bear: Tall, about 6'11", skinny, Medium dark complextion, dark brown hair, green eyes, very funny and eccentric, dating Kaitlyn Golde, purple and gold EVA armor**

 **Specialist Kaitlyn Golde: About 5'9", large breasts, atheletic body build, pale complextion, long dark golden blonde hair, greenish brown eyes, very caring, tomboyish, playful, black and pink Grenadier armor**

 **Specialist Nicole Embers: about 5'9", medium-large breasts, athetic body build, dark tan complextion, long dark black hair, dark brown eyes, intuitive, caring, stubborn, sassy, red and neon yellow Air Assault armor**

 **Now on to the story!**

* * *

 **A Gladiator's War**

Chapter 2: The Drop

This was my team's 400th combat drop in the past 5 years that we have been operating. That may sound hard to believe until you see us. We are part of a secret special forces company operating in the Valesian Military. We are Gladiators. At the age of 5, all Glad candidates are chosen and brought to the far depths of the Forever Fall forest to the Valesian Intelligence Research Facility. Home of the Valesian Central Intelligence Agency. Which officially doesn't exist.

There all candidates are first put through many biological tests to be sure that they are healthy and will accept the serums. Then they are put through excruciatingly painful biological augmentations. The serums do not take effect immediately but sit in the subject's system and alter their systems over the course of 5 years. These serums greatly increase the growth speed and size of the subject's muscles. So a 5-year-old kid will be fully grown at the age of 10 and be 10 times stronger.

Other chemicals are used to alter the nervous system and the brain. A normal person's brain does not reach maturity until the age of 25. The subject's matures at 9. This does not take away their childlike nature but does help in combination with the intense training and mental breakdown. The nervous system is effected greatly. The subject's reaction time is quadrupled. Their tolerance for pain is immense. They receive an unusual side effect with taste and smell in that it makes it stronger but makes it bland almost. Their hearing is increase substantially. they are able to hear a car driving down the street 1 mile away if they focus. The best improvement is done to their vision. The subject will receive a better than 20/5 vision. It is almost as if they are constantly looking through a scope of a rifle. They are able to receive and process information 3 times faster than the average human or faunus.

Some subjects begin experiencing sensory overloads which lead to hyper migraines that cause the entire body to seize and almost shut down. These candidates were never seen again at the facility. Once the subject completed all trial for the serums they were sent to the training barracks. Some people believe military training is hard, military thinks special forces is hard, special forces has no idea what Glad candidates go through. Glad training lasts for 5 long years. You are assigned your teams and team leader immediately. Together the team must complete every training event. If one fails, they all fail. They go through basic military, orbital drop, sniper, underwater, and special forces training in the first 2 years. The next three are called "The Trinity."

The Trinity is the hardest, most painful, most nerve-racking, and intense training any person can go through. The first of the 3 is basic Gladiator skills. You take what you learned in the first 2 years and expand even further into each category. This is also when you are assigned what your specialty in your team will be. This is decided based on your testing results. You are either made the designated marksman/sniper, the grenadier/demo specialist, or the medical expert/spotter with the team leader being the automatic weapons expert and driver in all teams. The second year of The Trinity is familiarization of all combat environments. This includes many different field exercises testing your fortitude, teamwork and survival ability in all of them. This is all done under supervision of the instructors. The final year of training in one large, live fire field exercise that lasts the entire year. Your team is orbital dropped in an unknown environment and expected to survive. The instructors are hunting them and will shoot to maim if they find them. Whether or not you survive the bullet wound they do not care but they will not directly kill a candidate. If captured, you are put through extreme torture. If you give any information up your team fails. If you successfully evade capture, then you pass and you have then earned the title of Gladiator. You are immediately thrown into the mix and are expected to complete full combat mission effective immediately.

That's how we found ourselves here. My team is at its 5-year mark and are about to break the record for most successful combat drops. After 5 years as a Glad the Valesian military releases you if you want and my whole team and I all want out. Don't get me wrong we love our jobs, but we all have aspirations to become huntsman and huntresses. We all planned on enrolling in Beacon Academy as soon as we could. The plan was to also be on the same team again. We are "pals 4 life" as our team leader would say. Sergeant Robert "Bobby" Bear is his name. The other members are Specialist Kaitlyn Golde, our grenadier, Specialist Nicole Embers, our medic and my spotter, and finally me, Corporal Jacob Penn, the sniper.

We all wore state of the art MJOLNIR class full body armor. Customized to meet each of our jobs and likings. Bobby being the eccentric person he is has purple colored armor with gold trimmings. His armor is also the EVA variant to suit his job. Kaitlyn wears black with pink trimmings. Her armor is the Grenadier variant. Nicole has red with neon yellow trimmings. She wears the Air Assault variant of the armor for increased visibility. Finally, my armor is brown with orange trimmings and I wear the ODST variant of the armor. They originally wanted me to wear Scout but I argued that it limited visibility too much and requested the ODST variant. I really wanted it so I could carve a sick ass design into the visor, which I did. It looks like the skull of a lion.

We are all finally suited up and ready to drop. The time is 23:30. Nicole and I are supposed to drop first to gain over watch and scout the village for signs of the insurgency. Once we give the clear Bobby and Kaitlyn will drop a few hundred feet from the village to pick up a couple off road bikes and come pick up Nicole and I. From there we begin clearing the entire village house to house and eliminate all threats.

I close the door to my pod and see the light turn from red to green. Suddenly, the pod is shot straight down into the night sky. I can see Nicole a few feet away maneuvering her pod closer to mine. We kill our engines upon approach so we don't draw attention. The pods hit the ground hard simultaneously. Slowly opening the door, I see that we hit our mark exactly. We are on a large cliff overlooking the village about 1 mile away. I quickly radio to the ship, "Drop zone 1 secure. Setting up over watch now, over."

"Good on ya! Call us back when it's all clear for us." Bobby's upbeat tone comes through the radio. "Will do bud," is my only response before shutting off my radio completely. As I turn to lie down by my rifle I see Nicole looking at me very keenly even from under her helmet. She takes it off and it feels like her dark brown eyes are piecing through my soul.

"W-what's the matter? Do I have something on my visor," I joke, hoping to dodge the imminent questioning that I know is about to come.

"Was it the same dream?" Her beautiful voice takes a concerning tone to it.

"It was nothing." I lied very obviously. She could always read me like a book. And I usually let her.

"Jake. You know I won't stop till you talk about it. It always makes you feel better. So why don't you come sit over here and talk. This part of the mission does not have a time limit." She had sat down on a small rock with another right next to it. Her words were true. I couldn't deny it. And she was the only person I could even talk to about it. I removed my helmet with a heavy sigh and trudged over to the rock. As I went to sit down she surprised me with a very sudden hug. I could tell my eyes were bugging out of my head and my face was as red as her armor. "You looked like you needed that." She then released me and sat back down. "Now, was it the same dream?"

Still flustered from the hug I stumbled on my words. "Y-yeah… It was the night they came to get me and killed my parents." I looked up at her and blushed again as she was staring right into my eyes with all the concern in the world. Her eyes always had a way of putting me at ease. I relaxed and gave her what she wanted. "Thanks Nicole, but I'm not gonna go on about it now. You've heard the story before."

She gave a stern look, "Jake I know you've accepted what's happened, but I also know you only get that dream when you're stressed. So what's bothering you?"

She was right again. I am still shaken up about my parents but I could live with it. When I get stressed though it really bothers me. "It's just, I'm worried about us." She looked a little confused. "Us?"

"Yeah, like what happens after this mission. Is the team gonna split up? I don't want to lose you guys. I don't want to lose you…" I was staring at the ground again. I couldn't bare to look at her and see her reject me.

She reached out her hand and made me look at her. She was smiling ever so sweetly at me. "The team won't break apart. We are family. And even if it does I would never leave you alone. You are like my best friend. All the time we've spent together I'm pretty sure we'd die without each other."

"Nicole, I don't think you understand… I-I think I love you." Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Her mouth was hanging open and she was struggling to talk. I went to stand to walk over to my rifle to get the mission over with when she grabbed me and kissed me really sloppily. This was my first kiss so I had no idea what to do and neither did she. We eventually settled into a rhythm and soon my lungs were burning for air. We broke apart gasping for breath.

"Oh Jake, I love you too! I thought you only thought of me as a friend. You don't know how happy this makes me." She was smiling ear to ear. I couldn't help but to smile back.

I gave her another peck on the lips, "Nicole I've loved you since year 1 of The Trinity. I never thought I would ever have a chance with you though." We both began laughing in each other's arms. Then I heard a weird static noise and looked over at her helmet. Which was pointed directly at us. I picked it up and listened.

"Shh I think he heard us he's picking it up." I could tell it was Kaitlyn on the other end.

"Kait. How long has Nicole been broadcasting to you?" I heard a high pitch yelp on the other end and a thud.

"Cograts buddy! We saw the whole thing! It's about time you two got together." Bobby was talking now. "Now get on with the mission you'll have plenty of lovey dovey time when you get back to the ship."

"Roger that." I ended her video transmission and shut off her radio. I then turned and gave her a very pointed look and was met by a sly grin. "I thought I could get you to do it tonight so I needed to record it. And Kait and Bobby wanted to know how it went so I just broadcasted it." She now had a large pout on her face and I couldn't help but forgive. I went over to my rifle, placed my helmet back on, and patted the ground to my left and she was soon lying next to me ready to go.

"We will talk when the missions over. So let's finish fast." I then started scanning the village through the cope of my rifle. Nicole would identify the points of interest, locate the bikes, and decide upon the easiest evac route. I would make sure there was no enemy near drop zone 2. After about 5 minutes of scanning we deemed it safe and radioed in for them to drop. I watched as I barely saw to two pod come out of nowhere right next to each other. Being Bobby and Kait they flung their doors off and rushed out weapons raised. There was literally no one anywhere near them but they just wanted to look dramatic.

They quickly acquired the bikes and were speeding up to get us. I stowed my rifle magnetically to my back and mad sure I had my dust energy sword. Nicole did a last check on her gear and we went to meet them down the cliff. When we got there we saw Bobby and Kait on one bike leaving the other empty. My mind went blank thinking of Nicole hugging my back as we rode. Needless to say we quickly mounted up, I was a little flustered at first but the ride to the village was quick and we dismounted near the outer wall. Quickly scaling the wall, we assumed a diamond formation and made our way to the first house. Kaitlyn breached the door and we all rushed in. Clear. Regrouping in the same diamond we moved to the second. Same routine, also clear. Third house, clear. Fourth, clear. All of the houses were clear. In fact there was nobody anywhere. Something felt off. Bobby quickly radioed command and they told us to get out of the village asap because it may be a mortar target. We made it back to the wall and prepared to scale it to the bikes. Then out of the corner of my eye I see a little boy come stumbling out of a house.

"Bob, what the hell is that? We cleared every single house." He looked where I was pointing and threw his hands up. Reaching for his SAW he aimed at the kid and shouted, "Stop! Let me see some hands!"

Kait smacked him, "Its just a kid!" She began making her way over to the kid. She took off her helmet freeing her long, luscious blonde hair and revealing her sparkling greenish-brown eyes. "Hey buddy. Where are your parents at?"

The boy didn't answer but kept walking towards her. He was now about 4 feet from her and I could see some weird bulges under his shirt. "Kait, get back!" she turned to me and shouted, "Not you too! Look it's just a ki" *EXPLOSION*

Kaitlyn was engulfed in a huge fire ball. Bobby and I were quick to run to her. Nicole pulling rear security. We found her easily. Her beautiful face was now burned and charred. She wasn't breathing. "Nicole get over here! She's hurt bad and she's not breathing!" You could hear the clear worry in Bobby's voice. His normal happy-go-lucky attitude gone. She began running to us and I picked up rear security, Bobby unable to leave is girlfriends side. The only sound I could hear was Nicole quickly removing Kaitlyn's body armor and working to bandage her face. Bobby was sitting in an eerie silence, probably praying to God that she survives. Then I heard something else, I heard engines. There were about 12 up-armored vehicles making their way down the main road towards the village.

I took aim and fired my high powered sniper rifle into the radiator of the lead vehicle. The bullet tore straight through the engine block and disabled it immediately. The whole convoy was at a stop. I called back, "We got company! Could use Kait's grenade launcher up here!" Nicole threw it over and immediately went back to work, Bobby still sat stroking Kaitlyn's hair. The men in the vehicle were now dismounting. I fired 3 well aimed grenades and took blew up the lead and second vehicle sending the men flying in all directions. Hoping that would hold them off a while I took out my rifle and began scanning for more approaching threats. I found none. So it was just 10 vehicles left with a lot of personnel from the looks of it.

It was hard to see in the dark but I swore I could make out the symbol of the White Fang on the vehicles. They must have been tipped off that we were coming. Nevertheless, we would make the pay for what they did. They obviously didn't know they were messing with Gladiators. I began picking off any stragglers with my rifle. The high power of it literally tearing them limb from limb. I heard Nicole begin carrying Kaitlyn and looked back. "She's breathing! We need to get her to cover. Can you hold out till I get her stable?"

"I'm fine here! Go!" I called back between shots. There were a lot of them out there that's for sure. Bobby now joined me at the gate, laying down a hail of fire from his SAW. Now I was hearing another noise. I heard aviation engines coming from the rear of the village. I looked back to see 4 Bullheads dropping off White Fang troops including one that wore a black coat and one with a large sniper rifle. My heart dropped at both the coated man's blade and the other's rifle. I recognized the glow they both had. They would cut straight through our auras. I grabbed Bobby a dragged him to a nearby alley.

"They have aura ignoring weapons out there. We need to stay down." I peeked out and saw the sniper setting up on a roof completely exposed. Obviously untrained. I lost the coated man though. Hopefully he wouldn't find us and we could get an evac here quick. There was something about that man's rifle that seemed so familiar. I couldn't quite place it. Bobby had finally snapped out of his stupor knowing Kaitlyn was alive.

"Alright, Jake flank left down the alley across the street. I'll cover you. Once you get there find a roof to get up on. Preferably a high one and take out that sniper and as many White fang as you can. I am going to collapse the front gate to cut off the vehicles outside then I'll help you deal with the assholes in here." His expert mind was clearly back to normal and I quickly got set to sprint across the street. As soon as I heard his SAW open up I ran. I made it without taking a single shot. I easily found a large building, looked to be a church of some sort. I found the stairs and made my way up to the bell tower. I could see the whole village from here and had plenty of concealment. A few clicks on my wrist data pad changed my armor color to pitch black, and I screwed a suppressor to the muzzle of my rifle.

"All set." I then began systematically taking out all of the insurgents in the village. There were only about 4 left including the coated figure and the sniper when I finally located the latter of the 2. "Taking out the sniper now." I easily found him perched on a roof taking pot shots at Bobby as he placed C4 on the arch at the main gate. I aimed at his shoulder blade so the bullet would pierce his heart. I fired. Suddenly the coated figure appeared and sliced the bullet out of the air. I couldn't believe his speed. Then I heard an agonizing yell from the gate. I turned and saw Bobby clutching the left side of his stomach. Another shot and he fell. As he fell he must have triggered the C4 as the whole arch collapsed blocking the road. I fired 3 quick shots and turned to exit the tower, not looking to see if they hit. As I exited the church my armor changed back to its normal color. I ran faster than I ever had and found that the second shot had got him in the neck. He was already dead. I picked up his body and ran towards the building Nicole took Kait to.

I could hear Kait grunting in pain as Nicole worked to re-bandage her face. Her aura took most of the blast and the damage was not as bad as it first looked. When I entered they both looked over to me. They froze when they saw me carrying his body, covered in his blood still pouring from his throat.

All I could do was shake my head and lay him down on the table next to Kaitlyn. "B-Bobby. N-no he can't be dead! You can help him right Nicole?!" Nicole examined the wound quickly and shook her head. "I'm sorry but he's lost too much blood. I can't bring him back." She laid a comforting hand on Kait's shoulder as she began to cry. Nicole's eyes were fighting back tears as well. I had to keep my composure so I turned and pulled security on the door with Bobby's SAW.

Two White Fang insurgents came rushing in only to be mowed down with more than enough bullets. Kaitlyn then stood and began beating the bodies with the butt of her grenade launcher. We let her. We were all pissed. I blamed myself for not being fast enough to kill the sniper. Finally, Nicole pulled her off. She then ran and buried her head into her dead boyfriend's chest. That's when I heard the tale-tale sound of a bolt being pulled back and sent forward. I ran to try and tackle Kaitlyn but was too late. The bullet came through the window and hit her in the back of the head. Her body slumped and rested in an almost peaceful looking position leaned up against Bobby. I looked down and saw I was now covered in the blood of 2 of my teammates. Me being too slow to save either of them.

Not wasting too much time I quickly shouldered my weapon and returned fire on the sniper. This time the bullet hit true and slit his head in two. Then I heard I very strange sound. It almost sounded like wind but had a sharper tone. I turned and found the coated man unsheathing his blade behind Nicole. "Nicole look out!"

Not turning she just ducked into a leg sweep and swept him off his feet. Quickly drawing her duel pistols, she shot at the man. He was too fast though and was on his feet in an instant. She holstered her weapons and drew her daggers. Quickly blocking an overhead strike from the man. The blade however cut straight through her daggers and sliced across her chest plate. I didn't see blood so it must have just got the armor. I was now throwing my rifle on my back and activating my Dust energy sword. Lunging at the man I was met with his block. Now I could get a good look at his face. He had blood red hair with horns. Spinning I sliced across his stomach and hit, leaving a larger burning slice where my blade met.

I would not let him get a break. I doubled my efforts and kept on the offensive. I was only landing glancing blows and his aura was taking the brunt of those hits. We were fighting so hard we did not notice Nicole come running up and stab the halves of her daggers into his back. He reached back, grabbed her and threw her across the room. I turned to look at her for a second. As I turned back I saw his blade blur past my left arm. Looking at my arm, I saw he had severed it just under the elbow, blood now gushing out of the stump. He then quickly kicked me and I landed next to Nicole. I used my dust sword to cauterize the wound.

I looked up slowly to see him approaching Nicole. She barely had enough strength to stand. That slice must have hit her and the blood just blended with her armor. The man reached her and pulled her up by her head. Removing her helmet and turning her towards me he quickly thrust his blade through her chest blood sprayed onto me. I was now covered in all of my teammate's blood. Her eyes pleaded towards me for help, but there was nothing I could do. Then I saw her mouth the words "I love you." I quickly responded "I love you too!"

Then she spun violently with the blade still in her and stabbed the man in the collarbone with one of the halves of her daggers. The twist made the wound even worse and she slumped on the ground falling back on to me as the man retreated in pain. I caught her and caressed her face. "It's gonna be okay. We are gonna get you out of here." I said not just trying to comfort her but more so probably myself. She looked up, smiled, then closed her eyes. I shook her calling out her name but she wouldn't respond. She was dead. My whole team was dead and I was next as the coated man recovered and picked his sword back up.

He made his way over to me and crouched down, "It's nothing personal pal, just getting paid a lot of money from a powerful person. I think you may even know him." My mind was racing. We were set up. It had to be someone from the Agency. I couldn't think of who. He raised his sword and stabbed me in the stomach. Again he stabbed and again and again. He stabbed me seven times in the chest and stomach but still I'm alive. He then raised his blade to my Adams apple and began to slowly put pressure on it. Suddenly the doors flew open and another Gladiator team can in firing towards the man. Once again he showed off his speed and leapt out the window. His blade barely sliced me. He was out of the village before anyone even saw him outside.

The team that saved me looked in horror at the room around them. 3 dead Gladiators and one missing half an arm, 7 stab wounds and a small trickle of blood on his throat. Their medic immediately rushed towards me realizing the others were dead. I just laid there numb as she worked on me. I blacked out.

* * *

 **A/N: sorry i suck at fight scenes, ill try to get better. the next chapter will be about 1 year later and you will get a description of Jake better then too. it will be right before he applies for Beacon.**

 **See ya next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A Gladiator's War**

Chapter 3: I Feel Like a Monster

I looked up at the mirror, water still dripping from my face. As I stared into my gray-blue eyes I almost couldn't recognize myself. Yes, I was still the same person. My eyes were the same but they had that thousand-yard stare in them all the time. My hair, I still kept it cut in the same high and tight style of the military, but it had lost some of its color. No longer was it the bright red-brown color from about a year ago. It was dull and I could see a small bit of grey hair every once in a while. I glance down at my torso and see that I have lost some of the muscle tone I used to have. I was still as strong as I used to be but I did not look as healthy. There were also the constant reminders riddled across my entire body, the scars. Every time I saw them they brought back the horrible memories. I could still here Bobby's scream as the shot tore through him. Still see Kaitlyn's face as the bullet passed through the back of her head. Still see all the fear and love in Nicole's eyes as she took her last dying breath in my arms. I punched the mirror, shattering it so I couldn't see myself.

I could tell my eyes were changing to their amber-orange color. The beast was close to getting out again. I would not let that happen. Not after what happened at the hospital almost 1 year ago.

* * *

 _1 Year Ago, VCIA research hospital:_

 _I awoke in an extreme amount of pain. Gladiators aren't supposed to feel pain but this was unbearable. I saw 5 doctors and 3 nurses all rushing around the bright whit room around me. One doctor probing at my left arm, obviously the source of all of the pain. Looking down I saw him inserting metal wiring and plates onto the stump at the end. I froze for a second. Where was the rest of my arm? Then I saw the other doctors working to repair internal organs through several holes littered across my torso. Then it hit me. They were all dead, they all died because of me. Suddenly I was filled with a burning rage. I began losing all my rational thoughts and all the pain I felt dulled out._

 _I swore I felt my hair grow and I could see it in my peripheral vision. My nails on my right hand grow into claws. I could feel my teeth grow in my mouth and sharpen. I was mad, not just at myself but at the world, at the agency, at everyone. I raised my right arm tearing through the industrial restraints that were holding me down and plunged my claws into the throat of the nearest doctor. They all screamed in a shocked horror. Before they could even try to run I was up. The doctor who had my hand wrist deep in his neck had stopped struggling, probably dead. I threw him towards the nurses trying to leave the operating room knocking them down and blocking the only exit. I was quick reaching them and swiftly stomped on two of their heads, squashing them like grapes._

 _I glanced over and found a large surgical saw similar to old fashioned wood saws. I picked it up and began sawing into the last's head. She screamed for a second until the blade hit her brain and silenced her forever. Now all the doctors cowered in the corners wielding small scalpels and one a drill. As I walked up to them one tried to stab me to which I responded by catching his arm, swiftly breaking it behind his back, and plunging the penknife into the base of his skull. From there I spun and slit 2 more of their necks. As they fell clutching at their throats I turned to last doctor. The one with the drill. The one who was putting this metal in my arm. He tried to drill me in the head but I caught him by the wrist. With an easy turn it snapped like a twig. I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground placing my knee on his neck. Then I retrieved the drill. I spun it up and slowly began lowering it towards his eye. He begged me to stop, apologized for everything, but I could not control myself. This entire time I had almost no control over anything I was doing. Almost as if I was a prisoner in my own body. I felt like a monster. I wanted to stop because I knew it wasn't their faults but I couldn't stop. This must have been the cost my mother always warned me of. I gained all the animalistic abilities of a lion but lost all self-control. It was a win-lose situation. The drill had now entered his eye and he was screaming in agonizing pain. Soon the drill hit his brain and a few seconds after that I was still pushing down and caved in his orbital splitting his skull._

 _Once I stood, I looked around at all I had done. I felt almost sick. Sure I had killed thousands of people on my missions but all of them were armed and were committing evil deeds. They were the enemy. These were civilians. The claws were gone and my hair and teeth were back to their normal lengths. I saw a mirror and watched as my eyes changed from those of a lion back to my own blue ones. Then I saw a brown and orange mechanical arm lying on a table. I picked it up and it snapped right on to the piece of metal at the end of my stump. I thought about moving the fingers and they responded just as quickly as if they were my own. It was perfect._

 _I looked around one last time, giving a silent prayer to god to guide their souls to the afterlife. Then I activated the semblance I inherited from my father and slipped out of the room and made my way to the hangar bays. There I found an open Bullhead I climbed in and found that it was the one that brought my team and I in. their bodies all still in body bags and my armor laying in a pile in the corner. I quickly climbed into the cockpit, locked up the doors and flew away towards the Vale._

* * *

Present Day:

I was finally dressed. I had modified my armor to be compacted and easily deployable from a small metal pack I wore on my back. With that I wore the thin, bullet resistant, carbon fiber under armor suit that covered my whole body but a pair of standard issue military cargo pants and boots. So it just looked like I was wearing an orange spandex shirt, backpack, and the pants. However, when I pressed a button on the shoulder strap the pack opened engulfing my torso in the chest plate the helmet raised out and was placed on my head. From the torso the leg armor easily slid over the cargo pants till it formed completely around my boots. The arms worked the same except the left arm ended just under my elbow. The mechanical arm was built with the armor on. My Dust energy sword and sniper rifle were constantly stowed on my motorcycle which I was on my way to now.

Entering the alleyway behind the rundown hotel I had been staying at I found my bike tucked away behind a dumpster. I activated my pack and my armor quickly formed around my body. I then attached my rifle to my back and my blade to my hip. My bike sat there, an orange sport bike with brown accents. It was a powerful 650cc bike. I was taking it on my regular morning routine, to go visit the graves of my fallen team.

It was a long drive from the ghetto of Vale to the outskirts of the Emerald Forest. Usually my morning drives were very uneventful and I usually only saw 1 or 2 people. That's because I always woke up around 0330 and was on the road around 0400. I was passing through the business district of Vale when I realized today would not be one of those days.

Vale police had the entire road taped off at a three-way intersection in front of a shop. The window was shattered and there were large cuts in the road. Something pretty serious must have happened last night. Strange I didn't hear about it on my police scanner. Then I saw her, a huntress. That explained why I heard nothing from police. She was attractive but looked very mean. She had blonde hair and glasses and wielded a riding crop as a weapon it appeared. Following her was a very tired looking girl. She was very cute, wearing all black with accents of red and a large red cloak with a hood. Her hair even had red at the ends. Her eyes were also an entrancing silver color. She looked to be around my age. She was clearly being scolded by the older woman while they were talking to the police. The girl appeared to have some box looking thing attached to her back. Maybe she was a student at Signal near here and she was involved in whatever happened. Whatever it was that happened it was clearly being handled and I wasn't needed, and I just wanted to get on with my day. An officer came over and let me pass around the scene. I slowly made my way around all the cuts in the road and as I passed the young girl her eyes lit up. She smiled and pointed at my back. She said something but I couldn't make it out so I just waved and continued out of the crime scene.

Knowing almost every cop was at that crime scene, I began speeding towards the forest. I reached the outskirts rather quickly. Parking my bike just inside the tree line so it can't be seen, I began my approximately 15-minute walk to the small clearing I chose as their burial site. I could see the grave markers from where I was at, the 3 Battle Crosses with their individual weapons and helmets. Most mornings I would spend an hour or so here mourning them. I still had not come to accept that I was still alive and they all had to die. I should have died with them that day. For the longest time right after it happened I contemplated suicide. But I could never do it. I had to live on for them. No matter how much it hurt I had to keep their memory alive.

I looked at the clock on my HUD and it read 0515. I had to leave now if I was going to make it to my appointment. I placed my hand on each of their helmets and quickly left. Making it back to my bike I sped off in the direction of Signal Academy. I had my entry exam for Beacon today at 0600. I pulled into the parking lot at 0559. I began running as fast as I could to get to the arena. I made it to the check in desk only to be surprised by the same blonde woman and brunette girl from the shop. It was 0601.

"You're late mister… Penn." The woman looked very irate with me. The brunette girl just looked dazzled by my sniper rifle for some reason.

"Only by 1 minute. Can't you cut me a break ma'am?" She looked me up and down and let out an impatient huff.

"Well since it appears you came dressed and prepared we can skip your readying up phase. I have all of your paper work here which I like because I was able to review it already. So I'll let you off the hook this time mister. But you had better perform very well in the combat exam. And next time if you know you have an appointment early don't be riding around an hour before hand in the opposite direction you need to be." She gave me a very menacing glare and pointed to the door leading to the arena.

"Thank you ma'am. I promise it will never happen again." I rolled my eyes behind my visor at her last comment. Nothing would ever stop me from visiting my team.

I then found myself on a large stage with spotlights making the rest of the room pitch black. I struggled to press the button on my forearm control panel. Mainly because the prosthetic didn't have very good fine motor function. Once I finally hit it my visor adjusted and I could see the entire room. There was a table with one man sitting at it. I then saw the woman join him and sit by his side.

"This will be a short evaluation of your combat abilities. You will be facing automated drones with Grimm like and insurgent like A.I. installed in them." The woman's voice sounded over the intercom.

I saw the floor open up and 5 robotic drones rise from the holes. They powered up and they all faced me. I just stood there confident in my abilities to face them from a defensive point. "Begin!" She shouted. And with that all of the drones began to rush at me. I still just stood there. My right hand ready to grab my Dust sword and my prosthetic ready to deploy the armored shield I had just found out about recently. The first one reached me and swiped at my head. I ducked and was quick to stab it through the neck with my Dust sword. The orange plasma dust burned straight through the mechanics of the drone. The second was on me very fast and I could get my sword around to it. So I resorted to trying to use my shield. Pressing the button on my left prosthetic the armor around the forearm unfolded into a great tower shield which I used to bash the drone away with. The only fallback to the shield was that it revealed the mechanical workings of my fake arm. I could hear the audible gasp from the female judge. With another fast spin on my heels I sliced through the falling drone. Only 3 were left now. All of which stayed back so I assumed they were the insurgent A.I. Planting the shield into the ground I deactivated my sword and placed it back on my belt while retrieving my rifle. I brought it up on to the notch the was carved in the shield and took aim. That's when I saw it. To make the test more realistic they had painted White Fang logos on the drones.

I instantly felt my eyes turn. I could see the claws come out of the small holes at the ends of my armored gloves. And I could feel my hair begin to grow. I let out a large ferocious roar and charged at the remaining three drones. They fired their assault rifles at me but I was too fast weaving back and forth. Before anyone could react I was on the first one. I punched a hole straight through its chest and started clawing at the internal workings. Then the others finally landed some hits. I turned and threw my helmet at one of them with such speed that it decapitated it easily, my helmet and its head soaring into the grandstands. The last one took aim but stopped when it couldn't locate me. I had managed to gain more control over my mother's semblance over the course of the year but it was still activated uncontrollably by extreme emotion. I could consciously make slight decisions but the beast still ruled in this form. I had managed to activate my father's semblance and go invisible. Quickly I was behind it and reappeared. I then disarmed it and swept out its legs. I pinned it to the ground and began punching it in the face. I just kept punching. After a while I was hitting the concrete floor and cracking it.

"You may stop now Mr. Penn." I heard the woman but couldn't stop. "You may stop now Mr. Penn!" she yelled this time but the beast was still in control and I couldn't stop.

"Mr. Penn." I heard the man speak and stopped suddenly. His voice was so calm and soothing. It nearly took the monster out of me. but it didn't. I turned and let out another roar and charged at the 2 of them. The man held out his hand, "Jake. Stop." And I did. It was so weird. It was like he had tamed the monster inside. "Jake you possess incredible talent and the unique ability to use 2 semblances at once. You do need to work on controlling the one but I'm sure that is something our professors at Beacon will be able to do over the course of four years." He had a mischievous smirk on his face. By this point I had come out of my semblance and looked normal again.

"Are you saying I passed sir?" I was very confused. I had just made a mockery of myself and nearly attacked 2 instructors that were grading me.

"Yes indeed Mr. Penn. I would be happy to see you this coming Monday at my school." I was ecstatic but kept my stoic demeanor. "Miss Goodwitch will give you all the information and let you know when and where to be Monday morning to catch the shuttle to the school. Congratulations." With that Miss Goodwitch climbed on stage and escorted me to the check-in desk after I retrieved my helmet and put it back on. She gave me a long spiel about not being late and all that jazz, gave me my ticket and sent me away. As I was walking away I saw that girl walking in with a stack of applicant papers. Apparently they were letting here apply early for some reason because she was obviously my age and I was too young. As I passed her she nearly tripped try to look at my rifle again. I gave her a quick wave and shouted "Good luck little red!" before getting on my bike and speeding towards the emerald forest.

I spent about an hour at their grave site telling them about the entry exam and everything like that. I decided to head home when I heard my stomach growling. I said my goodbyes and left. Hoping there would be food in my room and hoping the weekend would go fast so I could start at my new school training to become a huntsman and protect even more people.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long and its not too long. A lot of stuff has been happening over here. Idk why i thought writing during a deployment would be easy. i hope to make the next chapter a lot longer and maybe release it sooner. it will be their initiation thus all of our characters will meet in some way. i have big plans for how i will incorporate jake into the teams. Thank you to everyone who has Favorited and followed the story thus far. thanks for the feedback continue to do so and i will try to listen to it. see you in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A Gladiator's War**

Chapter 4: Start of a New Beginning

That weekend did not seem like it could pass fast enough. I was finally going to get out of the shithole of a hotel I had been staying in. I was going to start making a difference again. But finally, it was Monday. This was going to be my new start. Though I did enjoy serving in the Valesian military, I was trying to put that life behind me. I would never forget my team though. For they were not just my team but they were my dearest and closest friends. Nothing would ever make me forget them. Their deaths would haunt me till the day I die.

I quickly tried to push those thoughts out of my head. Today was supposed to be a good day. Though it wasn't really starting out that way. I stood waiting for the transport at the designated spot with all the other Beacon recruits that were from Vale and the surrounding area. They were all so enthusiastic and talking to each other and me, well I was standing in the back, just observing them all through my visor. Yes, I was wearing my full armor at this time. I did not want people to notice that I had a prosthetic arm just yet and the visor gave me the opportunity to observe without being noticed. What I observed surprised me quite a bit. Most of the kids here did not wear much in the way of body armor. Probably most were heavily reliant on their auras to receive the blunt of the attacks. This was a mistake in my eyes. With my body armor, or the few others I saw, we could withstand more damage. The either by projecting our auras outside of our armor or inside we could last longer because we essentially have 2 lines of defense against any attack. Another surprising fact was that a lot of them had very vibrant colors in their attire. Yes, I may have orange highlights in my armor but it did not give away much in way of my position and my forearms control module allowed me to change the color of my armor along with the visible spectrum of my visor. To me I always thought that one needed to blend into an environment no matter who or what you were fighting and even if you were not trying to be stealthy. The one thing that did impress me about most of them is the fact that most of them only carried one weapon. And it appeared that they all transformed into some other weapon of sorts. Me well I carried 2 separate weapons. The military was always a strong advocate of building a weapon for one purpose so those ideals were passed on to its soldiers. It would certainly be interesting to see the effectiveness that their weapons possessed.

The transport finally arrived and I was the last to board, handing the flight attendant my boarding pass and rushing by her before she could say anything about my helmet. I sequestered myself off in a far corner of the large open cabin ship and let the loud hum of the familiar dust engines lull me to sleep.

I was awoken very suddenly by a girl screaming. I was on my feet quickly and scanning the ship with my rifle. It was then that I realized that I was still on the transport to Beacon, not the small house in that village, that scream was not Nicole, it was some blonde girl screaming about vomit on her shoe, and I looked like an idiot right now to the few people who saw me. Not wanting to draw any more attention I quickly put my rifle away and began to walk towards the bathrooms. I decided I would spend the rest of the flight in there. However, I found that the male one was occupied so I begrudgingly went back to the main cabin. There was one seat open and everybody had to buckle up for the landing. I always hated that civilian rule. So yet again I begrudgingly took the seat. I was surprised to find it was next to a very good looking girl with a red ponytail and a very Mistrillian look about her. She looked over at me with a very surprised look on her face.

"I'm sorry was this seat taken?" I began to stand up to look for another seat. That seemed to take her out of her daze a little bit.

"O-oh no!" She reached out and grabbed my arm. "No its just I was very stunned by the look of your helmet and armor. You can sit here."

"Oh yeah, sometimes I forget it's on I wear it so much. Name's Jake. You?" I shook her hand and began to sit again. She got a huge smile for some reason.

"I'm Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos. It's a pleasure to meet you Jake." She kept staring at me for some reason but whatever. I felt the ship lurch slightly and began to stand. She looked sad.

"Well we're landing so maybe I'll see you around Pyrrha." She looked confused and was about to say something when the flight attendant came over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have now landed you may depart the air craft at this time. Thank you for flying with us and good luck with your studies."

I was the second one off only because the boy in the restroom came rushing out and immediately threw up in the closest trash bin. I simply walked right past him and took in a little bit of the sights. The first thing I noticed was the school's namesake, its beacon. It was a large, had to be well over 15 stories, tall tower with large emeralds in the top window that were lit up by the sunlight. It was truly a very miraculous sight to see. I was pulled from that sight as I heard an explosion from the courtyard in front of me. I didn't notice it but my hand immediately shot down towards my Dust sword. I swore to myself as I realized it was just a small dust malfunction from some prissy looking girl and the girl from the road and entry exam. I decided I should get to where I needed to be, saw a sign directing people to the auditorium and went there immediately. That was obviously a good decision as I found I arrived there first. The blonde lady, Miss Goodwitch was it, was setting up a microphone on stage saw me and smirked as I leaned against the back wall.

"Testing, testing. Can you hear me back there Mr. Penn?" I merely gave a thumbs up as a response. "Why don't you come up here to the front? You would be able to see better and make a better impression…" To that I gave a thumbs down. "Suit yourself. Good to see you know how to arrive on time." With that she walked off towards the back of the stage behind the curtains.

It was another long 15 minutes until the other students began to file in. All of them seemed to be in their same groups from the transport. I remained where I was, not really wanting to converse with any of these people. I did see Pyrrha, but decided not to go up to her either. She was watching the airsick kid with a very keen eye and I did not want to get between them if she was interested in him.

The time started to drag on a little bit more and apparently I dozed off again. I awoke as Miss Goodwitch told everybody to go to the common room and set up sleeping arrangements for this first night. So I did. I keyed my coordinates into my forearm data pad and pressed send. Soon a small drop pod landed in the courtyard and I was lucky no one saw it. I grabbed my personal bag out and pressed return inside the pod and it shot off back towards Vale. With my stuff in hand I moved to the common room and surprise, surprise was the first one there again. This allowed me the opportunity to claim a spot in the far corner. The perfect spot away from everyone. I looked at the time on my HUD and it read 1800. I couldn't believe it had gotten that late already. I decided to sync up the new scroll they provided everyone with my helmet and forearm. Once the downloads were all complete it was around 2000. And everybody else had come to claim their spots. I decided to sleep in my armor that night to cut down on the readying process in the morning. Before I knew it I was passed out eager to get things started in the morning.

The morning started off rather strange with this one very bubbly pink clad girl bouncing around shouting 'Its morning' a million times. As I awoke I saw a notification pop up on my HUD from Miss Goodwitch, but decided to go and brush my teeth first before reading it. I was surprised to find the bathrooms almost completely empty besides a boy wearing a green jacket and that same bubbly girl. I then went to the cafeteria to eat quickly. I sat in the corner facing away from everyone as I ate my 2 bowls of cereal. I decided to read the message as I ate. It said that after we were done with our morning routines all first year students were to find their assigned lockers in the locker rooms and await further instruction. It then had your locker number at the bottom of the message.

I was able to find my locker rather easily because it was the first one as you walk into the male locker rooms. Since I could tell I was early I decided to calibrate all of my systems via my forearm mount. I made sure my aura was reading out correctly and that my ammo capacity was displayed and correct. After a few more I was all set to go. I could hear some talking going on outside and then a loud thud. I went out in the hall to see that blonde boy pinned to the wall by a spear. Then a voice came on the intercom and stated that all first years were to report to the cliffs for initiation. So that's exactly what I did eager to get this under way.

When I reached the cliffs I was surprised to find that there were already quite a few people there. They were all standing on these large metal pads. There appeared to be 25 of them. So I took my place on the next open pad and waited for the others to show up. It only took them about another 5 minutes to show up. When everybody was in place the headmaster of the academy, Professor Ozpin, briefed us on what our mission was. We were told that we were to enter the Emerald Forrest and proceed North until we find a temple that will have relics in in. We were to retrieve one relic and return to the cliffs. He also briefed us that today we would be placed into teams. The first person we make eye contact with after landing would be our partner for the next 4 years. That statement had reminded me of my old team. I still needed to visit them this morning and I would have the perfect opportunity to do so during this initiation. The thought of them clouded my senses to the rest of the headmaster's speech. I think he mentioned something about the last 4 pairs and having to wait at the temple or something. I didn't know. All that I cared about was getting to my team.

He asked if there were any questions and I saw the person at the far left get literally launched off of the cliff. This would be fun. I readied my armor's lock up ability and set my feet for the launch. There were still 5 people to my left. Some kid down at the other end was freaking out asking if we had received parachutes of something. I knew he was gonna be in for one hell of a ride. I had received training similar to this in the ODST school portion of my Gladiator training. However, ours was from twice as high and without any armor. it was a straight free fall. A lot of people break a lot of bones in that training. There was now only 2 people to my left. My armor power was all being diverted to the locking mechanism now. 1 person left. I prepared myself to activate the lock. Suddenly I was flying through the air. I noticed however that I was far behind the rest of the students. They were all flung much farther. It appeared that the extra weight of my armor caused the platform to not perform to its standard. Whatever, I had my own mission to accomplish first and the closer I stay to the cliffs the better. As I neared the ground I locked up my armor. I was sent crashing through 2 trees spinning wildly then finally left a large crater in the earth where I landed.

Once I landed I unlocked the armor and got my bearings. It appeared that I had landed quite a way away from where everyone else was. I began my trek east towards the lower cliffs and the clearing that I knew my team was at. It took me about 30 minutes to finally reach them. I only spent about a minute there and began to make my way north-west. I could tell I was getting closer to where I needed to be because I heard the gunshots and explosions of people in combat. I could tell that I was going to be coming up on a large clearing and moved to a small hill to get a layout of the land. The whole time I had been thinking to myself, if everybody was getting a partner than why were there 25 platforms for us. That was an odd number and it wouldn't make any sense.

As I reached the top of the small hill it gave me a perfect view of the clearing. The first thing that I saw was that I had indeed reached my destination. I saw a ruined temple near the middle of the very large clearing. The second thing that I saw amazed me. There were 8 individuals fighting a very large Deathstalker while also avoiding attacks from a giant circling Nevermore. They were working fairly well together within their apparent pairs. And two of them had even begun to take control into 4 man teams. I could tell though that they would have no luck in beating both of these high level Grimm if the two teams did not work together. I took up a prone firing position next to a tree. The first thing I needed to do was get into communication with the teams down there. The closest one to me was a faunus girl who was hiding her cat ears under a bow. That would work perfect. Set my helmet to a broadcast microphone and whistled in a high pitch. The whistle was amplified by the speakers in my helmet and I could tell the girl heard it. I whistled once more and angled my scope to reflect the sun towards them. She saw me. She motioned to the rest of the fighters that I was on the hill and they began to make their way towards me, defending against vicious strikes from both adversaries in the process.

When they finally reached me I began to direct them on what to do. "Two shield in front! Green boy and bow girl behind them! Advance slowly towards the Deathstalker and focus fire on that stinger, try to cut it off. They'll shield you from any attacks from that Nevermore! Little red, I see you have a sniper, you'll come with me when we're all set up here! Princess you work on slowing down the 'stalker with some ice glyphs! And you last two, once the 'stalker is immobile unleash hell on it! Everybody got it?" They all just stood there staring at me. "I said do you understand me?!" That seemed to knock them out of their stupor and they all nodded and gave their confirmations. "Good. Let's go little red, we're gonna take out that Nevermore." She smiled wickedly and followed me into the cover of the forest.

"Who are you? Well obviously you're a student because I saw you at the entry exams, but you like know exactly what to do and are so calm right now it's really weird. You seem to have a lot more experience that us. What's your name? Mines is Ruby Rose!" She said all of that in one breath. She was ridiculous.

"There will be plenty of time for a meet and greet once we are done here. Focus on the mission and we can get it done even faster." She seemed to deflate a little bit at me dodging the question but looked ahead determined to get the job done. We finally reached the spot I wanted to set up at. Looking over the field I could see that the rest of them were following my plan to a tee. The shields had managed to make it up to the Deathstalker and were doing an effective job at prying its pincers open while still block incoming feathers from the Nevermore. The support behind them had almost finished cutting off the stinger, it was hanging on by a thread. The princess was dancing around it extremely fast, casting many ice glyphs and had almost completely stopped its movement. The last two, the busty blonde and the bubbly red head were loading up their weapons and getting ready to pounce on it as soon as the signal was given. The blonde boy with the shield obviously saw the same thing I did and yelled back for them to attack. Before you could blink they were both on top of it. The blonde unloading punch after punch right into its face and the red head on its back bringing her giant Warhammer down continuously on its spine. After about 5 hits from each of them the Deathstalker was dead and lying motionless on the ground.

At that point Ruby and I took aim at the Nevermore who was beating the rest of them back into the forest. "Alright, let's get it looking at us first so fire just above its head. Then once it's coming this way, you aim at its head I'll take out its wings. Got it?" I looked over at her and she smiled, "Got it!"

We fired our warning shots and that did the trick of drawing it towards us. It spread its wings open wide and began to dive right at us. Ruby was unleashing hell on its head making it flinch away and dive steeper down. I then fired 2 quick and precise shots right into the joints of the wings near the body. With my rifle being so powerful it nearly took the wings right off and sent I careening through the air towards the earth. "Now let's finish it!" Stowing my rifle on my back and activating my Dust energy sword I rushed down at the fallen Nevermore. I heard Ruby close behind charging with her giant scythe. I quickly hopped on its back and finished severing the wings and slashing at its spine. It reared its head up in pain and that was all the opening Ruby needed. She quickly decapitated it with a shot powered swipe to the throat. That was the end of it.

Everyone was beginning to emerge from the tree line. They had the look of absolute awe on their faces. Probably because Ruby and I just took down a very large Nevermore in a total of about 12 strikes only taking less than 30 seconds. I was honestly very surprised myself. I saw a lot of potential to be very effective soldiers in all of these individuals. And that blonde boy definitely had a lot of leadership ability add-libbing on my original plan the way he did. We all met up back at the temple and they all immediately pounced on me with the questions of, 'who are you,' 'where is your partner,' 'where did you get your armor,' and my personal favorite, 'why do you have two separate weapons.' I just sat down on a rock and let them get all their questions out. Once they were quite I began to speak, leaving my helmet on for now of course.

"Alright now that I can finally talk, and since I promised little red over there I would, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jacob Penn. I do not have a partner yet. My armor is special and I'm not gonna talk about it right now. And I use two weapons because it is more practical and I like it. Each is the best at their own jobs." They all seemed pretty pleased with my answers. "Now it's all of your guys' turn. Intros let's hear them." Ruby was in my face before I could even blink, "Hi, my name is Ruby Rose! And this is my weapon, her name is Crescent Rose. She's a scythe and a customizable high impact sniper rifle." She said as she whirled around and stabbed the tip of the blade into the stone near my foot. "I already knew all of that except the name of the weapon." She began to blush and rub her arm as she backed away mumbling an apology.

They all followed suit, giving me their names and a brief biography of them. I was surprised to learn that Pyrrha was a world class fighter and was famous and that Yang and Ruby were sisters. But I got all of their names and partnerships. Ruby was with Weiss, Yang with Blake, Nora with Ren, and Jaune with Pyrrha. The last one to introduce themselves was Weiss and she asked the all-important questions at the end. "Why are you alone without a partner and would you please take that ridiculous helmet off?"

"Oh yeah, that's right… I've just gotten so used to wearing it I forget it's there sometimes." Then instead of collapsing my whole armor down I just manually removed the helmet as a whole by unscrewing the air valves and turning off the life support systems. Once the HUD powered down I removed the helmet with a little bit of effort. The sun was very bright on my eyes as the visor is tinted and I haven't had it off in a few days. The first thing I saw on their faces was the look of shock and curiosity. "What is it? Not expecting a faunus?" Obviously that was the case for some of them as they began blushing and looking away from the two short lion ears on top of my head. But I noticed that a few of them were still staring at me. but they were looking at my neck as it was now fully exposed.

"Oh my god…" I heard Ruby mutter under her breath. I felt around my neck and touched the scar tissue that extended about 2 and a half inches in length right across my Adam's apple. Then they hit me, all of the memories of that night, how they killed them all, how he ruined my ability to speak normally without my helmet and breathe properly. It was all coming back to me and I could feel my eyes shift to their animalistic form. I was struggling against it, not wanting to go down that path again. It was hard but eventually I reeled it in and my eyes shifted back to their normal blue. I knew they all saw it but none of them had the guts to say anything about it, my eyes or my scar. I pulled the under armor collar up so it covered the scar and coughed couple times. "As for why I don't have a partner that is still yet to be found out. I'm not sure but there were only 25 of us at the start so that is an odd number. Maybe they just made a mistake." My voice was very raspy almost forced out. But I did a good job at hiding it.

As if on cue to answer my last statement and bullhead landed just behind them all and Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch stepped out. "It was no mistake Mr. Penn. I planned this out from the start. I just so happens that you 9 individuals were the last ones here. And judging by what I watched just recently it worked out just perfectly." We were all very stunned by what he was saying. "Headmaster could you please explain what you mean?" Weiss was the first one to ask. "Well, Ms. Schnee, this year we decided to try something different. This year we will have one squad in addition to the normal teams and that squad will have an appointed squad leader. That would be you Mr. Penn seeing as you are the one with no partner and demonstrated outstanding leadership ability when it was needed most. The rest will all be told to you when we make it back to Beacon and officially announce all of the teams. This is going to be an interesting experience that's for sure." With that a second bullhead landed, we all mounted up and made our way back to the start of our new beginnings.

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 **A/N: sorry this one took a while as well. i get writer's block a lot and dont get as much free time as i thought i would have over here. Firstly i would like to thank all of you who are still following the story. i like writing it. i would love to here more from you guys. now that all of the characters are introduced i may start having split parts in chapters meaning i will start multiple story lines for each character and bounce back and forth throughout the chapter. do you guys like that idea? let me know what you think. the next one will be a more of a getting to know each other chapter. it may be a little short. we will see when i start writing. see you then!**


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